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SpaceExplorer: 11 buttons really

anwyl

Member
I just purchased a 3Dconnexion SpaceExplorer to replace my 3Dconnexion SpaceBall and was disappointed to find that the SpaceExplorer was not really as advertised.

The SpaceBall has 12 buttons, all programmable in Pro-e. The SpaceExplorer, which is advertised as having "15 programmable buttons" has only 11 buttons which can be programmed in Pro-e. The other four buttons can be programmed in other applications but not in Pro-e.

I hope this post may save others some disappointment.
 
I don't know if my previous post got lost or not, I had a SpaceExplorer in demo for two weeks (first time, I was really amazed :D ). what are the four button you can not map to pro-e? I talked with 3dconnexion and they say configuring the unit for Pro|E is quite "tricky", maybe they are upgrading the drivers...
 
I've reinstalled my SpaceBall so I'm relying on my memory here. The buttons which can't be reprogrammed are: plus, minus, Panel, and 2d. Plus and minus control the device sensitivity. They are useless to me. I set the sensitivity and leave it. Panel pops up the device control panel. There are two buttons on screen which I can click to open that in a single click. Again, useless to me. The 2D function I have tried on my SpaceBall and found somewhat useful. However, due to its location, I would like to have used the 2D button for another function. Couldn't do it.

A search for SpaceExplorer here didn't turn up anything in the hardware forum.
 
Just fyi - SpaceExplorers' latest drivers (6.7.13) allow
for all buttons to be mapped. Even the plus, minus and 2d
buttons.
Edited by: neuronex
 
I wouldn't mind upgrading my Spaceball 5000, but it still works just fine. And I have 12 buttions ha ha ha
 
I have a Space Pilot that works fine. Program it as much as you want. Only problem is the MS Office plug-in stopped working when we went to XP-64. Has anyone found a way of getting the MS Office plug-in to work in 64 bit?
 
I'm back. The buttons still can't be programmed. Very annoying.

I've been forced to change from my beloved Spaceball to the decidedly inferior SpaceExplorer since my company is upgrading to Windows 7 and 3Dconnexion does not provide software support for the SpaceBall in W7. They could, but then they wouldn't sell new products.

Neuronex's post gave me hope that the buttons would all be programmable but that IS NOT THE CASE. After trying, intently, to program the plus, minus, panel, and 2D buttons I contacted 3DConnexion support. Their reply follows in its entirety:

"You have me at a bit of a disadvantage as I do not have access to the
ProEngineer Application. As I understand it, for mapping buttons in the
the ProEngineer Button Mapping Editor, you merely drag and drop the
command you want onto the indicated button. If there are no plus,
minus, panel, 2D buttons indicated in the ProEngineer Button Mapping
Editor, I would have to say that it was done by design and there is no
work around for it."

The plus, minus, panel and 2D buttons are not available in the ProEngineer Button Mapping Editor (3DConnexion's own software, by the way).

There is a competing product available, the Astroid, from http://www.spatialfreedom.com. But they do not really support pro-e. I contacted them to find out when pro-e drivers were going to be available and got this response. "We have been unable to reach a suitable partnership
agreement with PTC and so are unable to support Pro/E." So 3DConnexion is the only source for 3D mice for pro-e and if their products don't work as advertised they don't care because they don't have to.
 
Thanks for the info dr_gallup. I wish I'd thought to inquire here about W7 compatibility before I bought the SpaceExplorer again. Perhaps I could have kept using the Spaceball a bit longer.

3Dconnexion shows support for the Spaceball stopping at XP 64 bit.

By the way, your "We've upped our quality..." tag always makes me smile. I've quoted it often.
 
anwyl said:
The plus, minus, panel and 2D buttons are not available in the ProEngineer Button Mapping Editor (3DConnexion's own software, by the way)
Why not just create a mapkey in pro/e, then assign that particular keystroke to the plus, minus, 2d etc buttons in the 3dx control panel? Surely you'll achieve the same result as using the 3dxProengineer menu within Pro/e?

View attachment 4965
 
Neuronex,

Thank you for your response. Have you done what you suggest successfully? I tried that several times with variations and it didn't work for me. The settings are lost when I change between part, assembly, sketch, drawing, etc. modes. Here again are the writings of 3Dconnexion support:

"So it is not possible to set up a configuration in one mode that would be usable in another mode. So since each mode is an individual in its own right, settings for each mode must be made individually."

In my experience it is worse than that: you can't even set the configuration of the forbidden four buttons, using the method you suggest, in one mode and have that configuration be there when you get back to that mode.

If you have a recipe for assigning functions that works across modes, or even a way to set the forbidden four permanently for one mode, please share it.

I am using 3DxProENGINEER version 1.7.8, 3DxWare release 3.12.3, driver 6.12.1 firmware 4.20 (all the latest available at this time). Running on XP x64 Version 2003 SP2 (my computer hasn't yet been upgraded to Windows 7)

Anwyl
 
In my experience it is worse than that: you can't even set the
configuration of the forbidden four buttons, using the method you
suggest, in one mode and have that configuration be there when you get
back to that mode.
Ok, to keep it simple I've set up a mapkey in pro/e which calls up the SAVE dialog box (File -> Save), and assigned it the keystroke: J K L

In the 3dx Control Panel (not the 3dx utility in pro/e) I've got a profile (called frank) set up for pro/e:

View attachment 4969

Just to test it I assigned the macro to both the '+' and the '2d' key. So create a new macro (Custom Functions -> New) and input the pro/e keystroke:

View attachment 4970

Those buttons now execute the keys J K L whenever pro/e is open. They are not 'mode' dependent: they execute the mapkey whether I'm in assembly, part, sketcher or drawing mode etc. If the mapkey (J K L) works in a particular mode, then the spacexplorer, having that keystroke assigned to a particular button, should work exactly as the keystroke would if executed with the keyboard.

My spacexplorer, once a macro is assigned to a button, executes that macro globally within the appropriate application (pro/e)...I cannot understand how your buttons aren't global within the pro/e environment?

Specs:_________________________________

I'm using an older driver version as later versions don't support WF2, but for the few days I was using the lastest version, custom key assignments worked exactly as I've described above: they function globally within a particular application environment.

View attachment 4971

Microsoft Windows XP, 32-bit OS
______________________________________________




Edited by: neuronex
 
Neuronex,

I really appreciate your taking the time to record the steps. What you are doing is what I've been doing. I tried it again, even naming my settings Frank, and it just doesn't work for me.

As I described above, the settings are lost, changed back to the default, in the 3Dconnexion Properties window (which looks identical to your 3DConnexion Control Panel and is the one which opens from the windows task bar). The custom settings work until I change modes and then they stop working. When I look again at the 3DConnexion Control Panel the button assignments for the forbidden four are reset to their default.

I may try the version you are running just to make sure it is not something peculiar to my machine.

Thank you again,

Anwyl
 
I looked into the newer controllers but I'm sticking with
my 4000 at all costs. The button layout can't be beat.
 

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